


The Thousand Natural Shocks that Flesh is Heir To

by jdale



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol, Anakin Skywalker Leaves the Jedi Order, Canon Divergence - Order 66, Gen, Post-Episode: s06e04 Orders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 01:55:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20649296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jdale/pseuds/jdale
Summary: Rex isn’t ready to call the chain of events that led to Fives’ death over and done with just yet.





	The Thousand Natural Shocks that Flesh is Heir To

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [What if Anakin had Believed Fives about Order 66?](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/520181) by Generation Tech. 

“Hey, Angel,” Anakin asked Padmé as they lay on her bed, “have you ever given any thought to how we’re going to move forward after the war?”

Padmé looked at him and frowned. “‘We,’ the Republic, or ‘we,’ you and I?”

“You and I,” Anakin clarified.

“Not really,” Padmé answered. “I guess it just seems like there’s no end in sight.”

“I’m seriously considering the possibility of leaving the Jedi Order after the war ends,” Anakin confided. “After everything that happened with Ahsoka…I mean, the Council just handed her over to the military tribunal after barely even a token attempt at verifying the allegations against her for themselves! And then, once it finally comes out that she _was_ innocent, they’re like, ‘Oh, well this was your Great Trial. Come back to the Jedi and we’ll make you a knight.’”

Padmé nodded. “And that admiral that was prosecuting her, Tarkin? It seemed like he was more interested in getting a conviction than he was in actually finding the truth.”

Their discussion was interrupted by the chime of Anakin’s comlink. Reluctantly, he got up from the bed and went into the hall. After glancing at the caller ID, he pressed the button on the side of the comlink to answer the communication.

“Rex, what’s going on?” he asked.

Rex wasted no time in getting to his point. “Sir, can you think of two, maybe three senators who can be trusted to act in the best interests of the Republic, no matter what the situation?”

“Senator Amidala, for one,” Anakin replied. “As for a second…Bail Organa?”

Rex nodded. “I need to meet with you, General Kenobi, and those two senators as soon as possible. It would need to be somewhere away from prying ears.”

“Senator Amidala’s apartment,” Anakin suggested.

Rex nodded again. “That would be suitable, sir.”

“What’s this about, Captain?” Anakin asked.

“Can’t say over a comlink, sir,” Rex informed him.

Anakin frowned. “Have you contacted Obi-Wan yet?”

“Not yet, sir,” Rex reported.

“Alright, you contact him, I’ll contact Senator Organa,” Anakin ordered. “Senator Amidala’s apartment is on the top floor of the Senate Apartment Complex. I’ll meet you there in…half an hour?”

Rex nodded. “Half an hour, sir. I’ll see you there.”

Once the blue-tinted hologram of Rex disappeared back into his comlink, Anakin put it away and went back inside.

“Who was that?” Padmé asked.

“It was Rex,” Anakin told her. “He needs to talk to us, Obi-Wan, and Bail Organa as soon as possible. I told him we’d meet up here in half an hour.”

Padmé sighed, having learned long ago not to ask questions when it came to these sorts of things. “You want me to contact Bail?”

Anakin nodded. “If you don’t mind.”

* * *

“Is there anything else I can do for you, Mistress Padmé?” Threepio asked, setting a platter bearing five mugs of tea on the table in the center of the sitting room.

“Give us some privacy, please,” Padmé requested.

Once Threepio departed, Rex picked up one of the mugs and sipped it cautiously. “If you don’t mind my saying, Generals, Senators, by the time you’ve heard what I have to say, I suspect you’ll want something stronger than this.”

“What is it you have to tell us?” Bail asked.

“After what happened to Fives, I decided to do some more digging, see if I could make any sense of what he’d been trying to tell me and General Skywalker in that warehouse,” Rex began. “What I found was…disturbing. Every clone trooper that’s ever been produced on Kamino has had a biochip implanted in their brains at the earliest phases of their development.”

He pulled a small rectangular object out of his pocket and set it on the table. “It acts like a restraining bolt. Programmed onto the chip are 150 contingency protocols for emergency situations. When an appropriate authority orders a clone trooper to implement one of these contingency protocols, the chip takes control of the clone’s body and forces him to comply.”

Padmé picked up the object and looked at it. “This is one of these biochips?”

Rex nodded. “When I realized what was going on, I had mine removed, and I ordered every trooper in the 501st to do likewise.”

“Why? What are these 150 contingency protocols?” Obi-Wan asked.

Rex frowned. “The fact that you’re asking that only gives further credence to my theory. Eighty-three of these protocols are able to be enacted by any Jedi General, and a further 27 are able to be enacted by a High Jedi General.”

“So why weren’t we made aware of their existence?” Obi-Wan finished.

“Exactly, sir,” Rex confirmed. “I want to specifically draw your attention to Contingency Protocol 66, sirs. When Tup went into a trance and killed General Tiplar, it was because his biochip malfunctioned and caused him to execute Contingency Protocol 66 without having been ordered to do so by competent authority.”

Anakin and Obi-Wan looked at each other. “What does this Contingency Protocol 66 say?” Anakin asked.

“In the event of Jedi officers acting against the interests of the Republic, and after receiving specific orders verified as coming directly from the Supreme Commander, i.e. the Chancellor, GAR commanders will remove those officers by lethal force, and command of the GAR will revert to the Supreme Commander until a new command structure is established,” Rex recited.

“Sounds like the sort of thing that would have come in handy for dealing with General Krell,” Anakin remarked.

“That was my initial thought as well, sir, but if you examine it more closely, there are a few reasons why it actually wouldn’t be very effective for dealing with that sort of situation,” Rex replied. “Firstly, the authorization to execute it has to come directly from the chancellor. If a rank-and-file Jedi General leading troops on a planet in the middle of nowhere turns to the Dark Side and betrays his own troops, what’s the likelihood those troops will be able to get direct contact with the supreme chancellor himself to be able to get authorization to enact Contingency Protocol 66?”

“I’d imagine it would be nearly impossible,” Obi-Wan said.

“Second issue: the way the protocol is implemented, it doesn’t provide any mechanism for designating which Jedi is the one to be ‘removed,’” Rex continued. “For example, if this protocol had been used in the Krell situation, the way the biochips work, the clones could just as easily have been forced to attempt to kill General Kenobi as they could have General Krell.”

Anakin nearly choked on his tea. “You have my attention.”

“Third issue: once Contingency Protocol 66 has been put into effect, there’s no means of cancelling it,” Rex told them. “Think if this had been used in Commander Tano’s case: once it was discovered that Offee was the real culprit, there’d have been no means of calling off the strills against Tano.”

“That would have been very not-good,” Anakin commented.

“Fourth problem, and this is the one I think had Fives so concerned,” Rex went on. “The protocol specifies that after issuance, command will revert to the supreme commander, i.e. the chancellor, until a new command structure is established. After we killed General Krell on Umbara, command of the 501st went to the next officer up the chain of command, in that case General Kenobi. Had we been directed to kill General Krell in accordance with Contingency Protocol 66, the 501st would then have been under the direct command of the supreme chancellor himself until such time as he delegated command to someone else, and until he did so, we would basically be stuck sitting on our hands unless he himself gave us further orders.”

“Well, that’s rather inefficient,” Obi-Wan noted. “A single Jedi going rogue shouldn’t require the whole chain of command to be considered compromised.”

“Exactly, sir,” Rex agreed, “which is why I don’t think this protocol was ever intended to be a means of dealing with a single rogue Jedi. I believe the order for its enactment was intended to be issued to all GAR units at once to have them massacre their Jedi generals.”

“Which makes it highly suspicious that this protocol can be enacted by the chancellor acting alone,” Bail finished.

“This could just be a coincidence, but it also sort of fits with Palpatine’s brand of dark humor,” Padmé said. “In Naboo mythology, the dark pit of Chaos is said to be sealed by six impenetrable gates.”

Obi-Wan’s eyes widened. “When I was captured on Geonosis right at the start of the war, Dooku told me the Senate was under the control of a Sith lord.”

“You think he meant literally that the chancellor was a Sith?” Padmé asked.

“He was probably just playing head games with you,” Anakin opined.

“Ani, I know Palpatine’s a friend of yours, but you have to stop thinking he’s infallible,” Padmé told him.

“If he was a Sith, wouldn’t we have sensed it?” Anakin pointed out.

“Not necessarily,” Obi-Wan responded. “There are ways of disguising one’s Force presence. Remember when I went undercover as Rako Hardeen?”

“No. I refuse to believe he’s been deceiving me for thirteen years and I never once picked up on it,” Anakin declared.

“You’re far from the only one he’s deceived,” Padmé reminded him. “I was the one who moved for the vote of no-confidence that led to his election as chancellor, remember?”

“One of the truest marks of a Jedi is their ability to admit their mistakes,” Obi-Wan told his former Padawan.

Anakin sighed. _There’s certainly quite a bit of evidence to suggest the chancellor’s involvement,_ he thought.

“Alright, Rex, you’re the one who told us about this. How do you propose we resolve it?” Anakin asked.

“Contingency Protocol 65, sir,” Rex answered. “In the event of either a majority in the Senate declaring the Supreme Commander to be unfit to issue orders, or the Security Council declaring him to be unfit to issue orders, and an authenticated order being received by the GAR, commanders shall be authorized to detain the Supreme Commander, with lethal force if necessary, and command of the GAR shall fall to the acting Chancellor until a successor is appointed or alternative authority identified as outlined in Section 6 (iv).”

“Getting a majority in the Senate will be nearly impossible,” Bail noted. “Who composes the Security Council?”

Rex’s face split into a wicked grin. “The Loyalist Committee, sir.”

Bail almost laughed. “The Loyalist Committee is ten members, which means a quorum is six.”

He then pulled out a comlink and spoke into it, “Sheltay: I need Senator Mothma, Senator Zar, Senator Danu, and Senator Alavar to come to Senator Amidala’s apartment immediately.”

_“I’ll let them know,”_ the voice of Bail’s top aide, Sheltay Retrac, filtered through the comlink.

“Threepio, would you go downstairs and bring up a bottle of Saché’s _tihaar_?” Padmé called.

_“Certainly, Mistress Padmé,”_ Threepio’s voice carried in from the kitchen.

Seeing the look of astonishment on Rex’s face, Obi-Wan asked, “What’s _tihaar_?”

“Mandalorian booze,” Rex told him. “_Very_ strong stuff, triple-distilled from whatever fruit is available.”

“I believe Saché makes hers using shuura fruit,” Padmé put in.

“Well, then, I’ll have to try it,” Rex commented. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a _tihaar_ made from shuura fruit before.”

“I’ll contact my troops and have them remove their chips as well,” Obi-Wan said, stepping out into the hall to do so.

One by one, the four senators Bail contacted arrived at the apartment. Once they were all there, Bail had Rex explain the situation to them and outline his proposed course of action.

“I’m a little concerned by the fact that we would be taking away the clones’ free will in this matter by issuing them an order their chips will force them to follow,” Senator Alavar noted.

“Trust me, Senator, if we had time to explain the full situation to the clones, they would have no objection whatsoever to carrying out this order,” Rex assured her.

Alavar nodded in understanding.

“We’re all in agreement, then?” Bail asked.

The six senators nodded. Taking a deep breath, Bail pulled out his comlink and dialed. “Commander Fox: the Republic Security Council has found the supreme commander unfit to issue orders. Contingency Protocol 65 is now in effect.”

_“Understood, sir,”_ came Fox’s reply.

Once Bail had put his comlink away, Padmé picked up the bottle of _tihaar_ Threepio had brought and poured a glass for each of those present.

“Bottoms up,” she declared somberly, downing hers in a single gulp.

* * *

Fox and the rest of the Coruscant Guard marched into Palpatine’s office, blasters leveled.

“Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, by order of the Republic Security Council and in accordance with Contingency Protocol 65, you are under arrest on suspicion of high treason,” Fox informed him.

Seeing Palpatine stand from his chair, Fox warned, “If you attempt to flee, you will be met with lethal force.”

Palpatine shook his right arm, and a short silver cylinder appeared in his hand.

“Weapon!” Fox yelled.

Palpatine ignited his lightsaber and began deflecting the clones’ blaster bolts for all he was worth, but the sheer volume of fire quickly overwhelmed his defenses, and a volley from the Z-6 rotary blaster cannon wielded by one of the clones quickly felled him.

“Cease fire! Cease fire!” Fox ordered once he was certain the chancellor was dead. Slapping his wrist comlink, he reported, “Senator Organa: Contingency Protocol 65 has been executed successfully.”

* * *

A few days later, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padmé were once again gathered in Padmé’s apartment.

“So that’s it, then?” Anakin asked. “The Separatists are just giving up?”

Obi-Wan nodded. “Apparently Dooku wasn’t as bought-in to the Sith ideology as we thought. With his master dead, when Bail was elected to succeed Palpatine as chancellor, Dooku saw his opportunity to sue for peace.”

“What happens to him now?” Padmé asked. “He did fall to the Dark Side.”

“Many centuries ago, before the Sith went into hiding, the Jedi developed a drug that suppresses a Force-user’s connection to the Force,” Obi-Wan told her. “In exchange for agreeing to take this drug regularly, Dooku will be allowed to live out his remaining years in seclusion on his homeworld of Serenno.”

“I still can’t believe he killed Grievous,” Anakin remarked.

“For a Dark Sider, it wouldn’t be that difficult,” Obi-Wan replied. “All he’d have to do would be to use Force lightning to short out Grievous’ limbs so he couldn’t defend himself and then slice up his organ sac with a lightsaber.”

“Have the rest of the clones had their chips removed?” Padmé asked.

“Yes, and now that the war is ended, those who wish to leave the Republic’s service will be allowed to do so,” Obi-Wan told her. After a brief pause, he turned to Anakin and asked, “You’re absolutely certain you won’t be moved on your decision to leave the Jedi Order?”

Anakin nodded. “I lost a lot of faith in the Council after seeing how they handled the accusations against Ahsoka. I can’t believe you were the only one on the Council who was willing to stand up for her.”

“Master Plo wanted to, but he was…_convinced_ to fall in line,” Obi-Wan revealed. “You’re not the only one who sees the problems with the Jedi Order, Anakin. It’s just that where you choose to leave, I choose to remain behind and attempt to fix the Order from the inside. It’s what I believe Qui-Gon would have wanted me to do.”

“Will we ever see each other again, Master?” Anakin asked.

“Absolutely,” Obi-Wan assured him. “If the Order tries to stop me from maintaining my friendship with you simply because you decided to leave, then they are too far gone to be rescued.”

“Well, then, until we meet again,” Anakin said. “May the Force be with you, Obi-Wan.”

“And may the Force be with you, Anakin,” Obi-Wan replied.

“Oh, one other thing,” Anakin called out as Obi-Wan neared the door. “Now that I’m officially resigned from the Order, I’d like to formally introduce you to my wife of just under three years, Senator Padmé Amidala.”

Obi-Wan smiled. “My belated congratulations, you two.”

Once Obi-Wan departed, Padmé turned to Anakin and proposed, “What say we…_celebrate_ no longer having to hide our marriage?”

Anakin grinned. “I like the way you think.”


End file.
